By Yoon Chul
Staff Reporter
Former Korean table tennis stars Yoo Nam-kyu and Hyun Jung-hwa are to manage the country's two national teams for a second time.
The Korea Table Tennis Association (KTTA) named Yoo and Hyun as the head coaches of the men's and women's squads in a Thursday briefing. Lee Chul-seung and Kang Hee-chan will join them as assistant coaches.
Yoo, 40, who won a gold medal in the men's singles event at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, currently works for the KTTA technical committee, while the 39-year-old Hyun, who also claimed gold in the women's doubles at the same Summer Games, is a head coach for the Korea Racing Authority (KRA).
The two former Olympians have rejoined the teams 13 months after they quit the posts in protest against former headman Chun Yung-suk's allegedly arbitrary management of the association in December 2007.
At that time, the KTTA was divided, forcing Chun to step down.
As Korean Air Chairman Cho Yang-ho became the new president, Yoo and Hyun returned as coaches and played a key role in helping Korea capture two bronze medals each in the team events at the Beijing Olympics last year.
Yoo also helped Lee and Ryu Seung-min top the men's doubles at the Busan Asian Games in 2002 and Hyun led a Lee Eun-sil,Suk Eun-mi team and Kim Kyung-ah to a silver and bronze on the women's side of the Athens Olympic Games in 2004.
Men's and women's team coach Lee Chul-seung and Kang brought home a bronze medal in the men's doubles at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. Lee was also a coach for Ryu, as he topped the men's singles in Athens, while Kang heads Korean Air, which has national athletes Dang Ye-seo and Kim Kyung-ah on its squad.
``Ma Long, expected to replace world No. 6 Wang Liqin, has been emerging. For the next two to three months, I will try to find answers to beat China's Ma Lin, Wang Hao and Ma Long,'' Yoo said.
``As Joo Se-hyuk won a silver medal at the world championships, while Oh Sang-eun and Ryu finished third, we will try our best to live up to those billings.
``I will also focus on training youngsters, such as Jeong Sang-eun and Seo Hyun-deok, for the London Olympics in 2012. If they improve their skills and build up stamina, they will get good marks.''
``If we fail to challenge China at this World Championships, it will be very hard at the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010,'' Hyun said.
Both will take charge of the Korean men's and women's teams, starting from the world championships in Yokohama in April until the next year's Asian Games.
They are staging a gathering of players at the Korea Training Center next week.